The Foley Case

June 22, 1986|By Barbara Newman, Department of English, Northwestern University, (Endorsed by 44 members of the Northwestern faculty).

EVANSTON — As a member of the Northwestern University faculty, I wish to protest the political firing of Barbara Foley, assistant professor of English. The issue in this case is not simply ``free speech,`` as The Tribune editorial has claimed. It is the right to peer review, faculty self-governance, and due process which is fundamentally at stake.

After six years of teaching at Northwestern, Foley was recommended for promotion and tenure by the Department of English and subsequently approved by a three-member ad hoc committee (appointed by Dean Rudolph Weingartner), an 18-member Committee on Promotions and Tenure (elected by the faculty), and the dean. The grounds for promotion and tenure are scholarship, teaching and service to the university. Foley underwent a thorough review, which included high recommendations from specialists outside the university. Her record was judged to be excellent on all counts.

On May 21, Provost Raymond Mack overturned the recommendations of the faculty and the dean and denied Foley a tenured appointment.

Foley, a Marxist, is widely known for her political activism. She took part in a broadly based protest against Contra fundraiser Adolfo Calero, who had been invited to speak at Northwestern by the Conservative Council, a student organization. Foley and several others called for a shoutdown which prevented Calero from giving his planned speech. She did not throw animal blood or ``physically prevent`` Calero`s speech; nor was she convicted of taking part in the shoutdown itself.

For this action Foley was charged with violating the principle of academic freedom, although Calero was neither an academic speaker nor a guest of any academic department at NU. She appealed her case to an elected faculty committee, which upheld the charge of professional misconduct but rejected the proposed sanctions of suspension and dismissal. It recommended no sanction beyond a formal letter of censure, which was duly issued by the provost. Mack had previously stated that he would stand aside from Foley`s tenure proceedings because he had ``acted as prosecutor`` in the case. He has now broken his word.

While I do not endorse Foley`s action, I strongly protest the provost`s decision as a blatant abuse of the tenure process and therefore a powerful threat to academic freedom at Northwestern.